Princess's Secret Baby(76)

                She asked his driver to take her home.

                ‘You are loved though,’ Leila said to the small life inside                     her. ‘You are so loved and you are so wanted and I am going to do everything I                     can to ensure that you know it every day that I am with you.’

                And she would do it alone.

                Leila refused to be with a man who did not truly love her,                     refused to be like James’s parents. Her daughter would have a mother who was a                     strong woman instead of a martyr. Her daughter would have a mother who refused                     to turn the other cheek.

                Anger was coming now and Leila threw a few clothes into the                     small case she had brought with her from home.

                She wanted nothing from him.

                Nothing.

                Leila tore off the robe he had made for her and put on the one                     she owned and decided that she would send for her things later. She simply                     couldn’t bear to be here anymore, amongst his things, his scent, close to the                     man who had stolen her heart.

                She took her cash she had saved from working and her passport                     and put them in her bag and then Leila removed the ring that James had given her                     at that appalling showy proposal where he had attempted to trap her.

                He never would.

                I hope she was worth it... Leila                     texted, and sent it, and then she threw the phone he had given her onto the bed                     and left the building.

                James received the text just as he was getting into his car                     after leaving The Chatsfield and he immediately called her but it went straight                     to messages.

                ‘Was Leila okay when you took her home?’ James asked his                     driver.

                ‘She didn’t say much,’ he answered, ‘although she never does.’                     Then he told James he had taken her to The Chatsfield earlier, and James felt                     his stomach clench. ‘Then I brought her home again.’

                He told his driver to wait for him, but as soon as he stepped                     in their home James knew that she had gone.

                Her phone was there, her ring was there, everything was                     there—just not Leila.